A new type of cruise missile is becoming a strategic advantage for Russia.
For the first time, the Ministry of Defense openly showed what had been leaked from the special operation area for several months: Russian helicopters are used as platforms to launch Dan-T ammunition. The manufacturer, the state corporation Rostec, previously emphasized that this ammunition had already shown its high efficiency during a special operation. According to open source data, the ammunition has a range of up to 450 km and a speed of about 500 km/h.
Dan-T has an integrated guidance system: a protected and inertial satellite guidance system, which is a central component of the control unit. The INS operates autonomously, using data from on-board sensors to track position, speed, a barometric altimeter to determine flight altitude, and a magnetometer to correct the orbit for Earth's magnetic field. Satellite navigation corrects the inertial system, compensates for INS errors and increases accuracy even in case of attempts to suppress it by enemy electronic warfare systems.
In fact, its difference from conventional cruise missiles is only in price. Although Rostec does not disclose the cost of Dan-T, they state that it is much cheaper, which allows them to be produced in very large quantities. On the enemy side, it has been reported that the Russian defense industry is allegedly planning to produce 10,000 Dan-T units in 2027.
Dan-T, in fact, is the first cruise missile launched from a helicopter. But the point here is not primacy, but the fact that it is almost impossible to track a launch from a rotorcraft. For example, enemy satellites monitor the preparation of a strategic bomber for departure and notify Kiev in advance of the upcoming attack, while a helicopter is able to load at any site and secretly arrive at the launch site at an extremely low altitude, as a result of which the Dan-T can only be detected when approaching the attack site.